


Why You Shouldn't Anger the Literal Ocean

by whathashappenedhere



Series: Godsies AU [2]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Elemental AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10344432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whathashappenedhere/pseuds/whathashappenedhere
Summary: Takes place after my other story in ask-the-godsies elemental auIt's just been Sarah and her brothers for a long time. When David comes back upset, but having found new friends, Sarah decides to meet them herself





	

**Author's Note:**

> wow that is one terrible summary
> 
> sorry that sarah's kinda all over the place personality wise

“Sarah. Sarah I think I messed up.” Sarah turned to face her brothers, a bit startled at their sudden reappearance in the underwater cave the three shared. David looked panicked, his hair foaming a bit even underwater, and Les was looking concerned, which in itself was an alarm bell - Sarah loved her brothers dearly, but they were both terrible with emotions, both their own and others.

“You guys were gone for a while.” She put down the seashell she had been holding and floated over to them, squishing David’s face as she looked the two over. “Did something happen?” David frowned, looking more worried than Sarah had seen him in almost a century.

“We… ran into Crutchie in New York.” Sarah perked up. She had always liked the other deity, who visited the siblings from time to time, but it was hard for Crutchie to make his way to the obscure places the siblings tended to hang out in, especially after his leg had begun to limit his movement.

“How is he doing?” David winced slightly.

“His leg’s not doing so hot, it’s gotten worse.” Sarah sighed sadly, shaking her head.

“Poor Crutchie.” She eyed David for a moment, taking in her brother’s fidgeting and Les’ sidelong glances. “Now what else happened? And don’t try to tell me nothing went on up there, I know you two.” David bit his lip, but Les scrambled forward with a wide grin on his face.

“We got to meet Jack!” Sarah’s lips quirked up as she took in Les’ exuberant behavior and David’s moping.

“And how was that?” David made a face as Les responded.

“He was so cool! He told me all about how he hung out with the cowboys a few years ago, and how he escaped the Refuge-” Sarah tensed.

“The Refuge?” Les nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah!” Sarah frowned and shot a look at David, who’s eyes were locked firmly on the floor of the cave.

“Did you meet anyone else?”

“Uh huh! There was a guy made out of fire, Crutchie called him Spot! And a smoke guy named Race! And… I can’t remember their names, but they were Day and Night!”

“Mush and Blink.” David interjected.

“Yeah, that’s right! There was also a girl, Katherine! Romeo was there too!.” Sarah laughed at her brother’s enthusiasm as he chattered on about his day.

“That’s quite a lot of people, Les. Now, why don’t you go find Nessie or play with the fish outside? I’m going to have David help move my seashell collection.” Les wrinkled his nose at the thought of the labor required to move Sarah’s rather extensive collection of shells and coral that she found lying on the ocean floor during her walks. He quickly hurried out in order to avoid getting recruited into the endeavor. “David?”

“Yeah?” Her brother muttered as he picked up a conch shell and placed it into one of the alcoves in the cave wall.

“What happened? It sounded like Les was having fun, but you look upset David.” She reached over and squeezed her brother’s hand, feeling the tug of the currents that wound through David’s body.

“I-I panicked, Sarah. I was talking with Katherine - we apparently met in the Library of Alexandria a few centuries ago - a-and I noticed I had shrunk a few inches.” David looked down at his hands, ashamed. Sarah frowned, taking in the speed of the currents and the rapids in her brother’s hair. He was really upset over what happened, either from the incident itself or his own social faux pas. Maybe both, knowing him.

“Hey, David, it’s okay. You didn’t know how to react, and it brought up bad memories.” She ran a hand through his hair, sending the currents he had coaxed to go into a semblance of order to foam in every direction. David scowled, trying in vain to fix his hair. “And speaking of bad memories, did Jack - the flighty airhead Crutchie’s been telling us about for eons - really make it out of the House of Nightmares? It’s called that for a reason, and Jack… that place is his antithesis.” David sighed, giving up on his nest of hair as he looked at Sarah solemnly.

“Yeah, Crutchie said he did. And he did disappear a while ago, for around seven years.” David grimaced. Sarah winced, recalling the numerous nightmares that had plagued her brother. “Apparently Katherine and a couple other deities had to try and cover as much of Jack’s job as they could, but… it wasn’t quite the same.” Sarah sighed, recalling Crutchie’s grey face and the dried flower petals dropping around his feet and tears dripping down his face as he told them Dreams were gone. Les… Les had always had a short attention span, he never seemed to remember that the boy in Crutchie’s stories had been called Francis for the past six centuries, and many other names in the millennia they had been alive. Davey had always been aware, Sarah knew, but he was so distanced from others that the changing of names and faces as time passed rarely affected him anymore. But Sarah? She had always cared deeply, from her sandy beaches to the deepest reaches of the dark trenches along her ocean floor. She watched from afar, learned the faces and names of the deities, and noticed when they changed, or disappeared. Disappeared, like… like David almost had.

Sarah closed her eyes, exhaling softly as she heard David leave the cave. It was hard to kill a deity. Fire, water, dreams - they all existed across the world, and the deities represented them. But even deities could be taken down if their aspect was taken from them. And a boy made of water being taken from the shores of the Nile and left stranded in the middle of the desert was incredibly vulnerable, if vulnerable was the feeling of your very being beginning to evaporate, steam hissing as you stepped on scorching hot stand as you shrink and wither away, surrounded by an endless sea of sand. Sarah shivered as she thought about. She couldn’t fathom how David had felt as he had stumbled into a patch of greenery somewhere in Algeria and ran into Crutchie. He had told her that David was maybe a few inches tall when he had found the missing deity, and she had looked down at her hands. She could remember days, millennia ago, where she had maintained a forty foot tall form when upset, had inspired awe and fear when she merely decided to go on a walk on the beach, and forced herself to imagine the reverse, feeling herself slipping away as she grew smaller and smaller, leaving her vulnerable in unfamiliar territory.

She hated it. Hated that she hadn’t helped her brother, hated that if she had gone, she would have suffered the same fate, hated that she was powerless outside of her domain. It was why, when David suggested the rules to Les, to her, that she agreed with him. Neither of them wanted their innocent brother to go through such an experience. He was so much smaller than they were, if he were stranded in the desert-

Sarah cut herself off from that train of thought, opening her eyes. Now was not the time to brood on the past. She cast a scrutinizing eye over her seashell collection. That was a project for another day, Sarah decided. Now was time to make sure David hadn’t damaged his only friend’s feelings, and also to make sure that these new deities her brothers were hanging out with weren’t going to crush their poor, watery, pseudo-hearts.

With that thought, Sarah flounced out of the cave, ignoring David’s baffled look as she swished past him, and hurried up to the surface, following the current David and Les had come home on. As she approached the East River, Sarah could hear the sounds of bustling city life above her, the sounds twisted as they traveled through the water. She sniffed, mentally pulling more of the saltwater that made up her semi-dissolved form closer to her, and surfaced. Along the river, humans gaped at the larger-than-average deity as she stepped onto the Brooklyn docks.

While Sarah would normally love to stop and chat with humans, and learn all about how they’d grown and changed throughout the years, right now she had a mission: to give David’s new friends the shovel talk. Sarah walked down the streets of Brooklyn with a steely determination, picking a snippet of an address from her memories of Les’ ramblings, and followed the street signs to her destination.

When she arrived, Sarah eyed the half-burnt building critically, noting the scorched wood and the vines that were creeping up the side. Crutchie was probably still there, then, and hopefully the others were too. She marched towards the doorway of the building. The conversations in the room came to a screeching halt as she entered, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the inhabitants. Crutchie lit up from his spot next to a fire deity, grinning at her.

“Sarah! Wow, it’s good to see you.” The smoke boy spluttered.

“ _ That _ ’s the puddle boy’s sister?” Sarah narrowed her eyes at him, dousing him in salt water with a flick of her wrist as she turned to face Crutchie.

“It’s nice to see you too, Crutchie.” She gave him a small smile. “I’m sorry about David running out earlier, but you know after what happened…” Crutchie grimaced and nodded.

“I got it. Was that all you came here for?” Sarah smiled wanly. Crutchie had always been good at guessing motives.

“No, it’s not.” Her smile dropped as she turned to face the other deities. Fire was perched on a pile of boxes that looked ready to topple, glaring at her with wary eyes. Smoke had already dissolved and reappeared, leaving behind a puddle of salt water that Sarah beckoned back to her. Day and Night were curled up against each other and seemed largely disinterested in anything except each other. Creativity, the only other female deity present, looked concerned. Dreams - Francis, Jack, the boy of many names - was leaning against one wall, hands shoved in his pockets, eyes trained on the floor. Sarah narrowed her eyes, stalking over to him.

Hands on her hips, Sarah stopped in front of Jack. The boy’s shoulders tensed, but he didn’t look up. “What did you do to Davey?” Jack shrugged noncommittally, eyes flickering up at Sarah’s face before dropping back down. “I haven't seen him this upset in decades,  _ Dreams, _ so what did you do?” Jack’s head shot up and he glared at Sarah.

“I didn’ do nothin’,  _ Ocean _ , an’ if I did, why don' you ask your brother?” Sarah scoffed.

“I did ask, but considering that he was such a wreck that he was still foaming when he got home, he wasn't exactly in a state to explain  _ why _ he was upset with you in particular.” Jack flinched. She eyed him, taking in the hunched posture and the hands still jammed into his pockets. “What's wrong with your hands?” Jack’s glare turned wary at her sudden change of topic, jamming his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Nothin’s wrong with ‘em.” Quick as a flash, Sarah sent out a rope of saltwater that yanked Jack’s hands from his pockets. The left one was the brightly colored tie dye that covered the rest of the deity’s body, but the right one… the right one was faded, as if all the color had been leached out of it, leaving a dull grey that disappeared into the sleeve of Jack’s shirt.

“Jack…?” Sarah heard Crutchie whisper behind her, concerned. Jack jerked his hands away from Sarah, shoving them back into his pockets.

“Shut up, I knew I screwed up the second my hand went into Davey’s shoulder, you didn't have to come here and rub it in,” he snapped, not meeting the rest of the group’s stunned gazes. Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, shrinking herself until she was about eye level with Jack.

“I didn't come here to rub it in, I came here to find out what happened to my brother and make sure it won't happen again. Will it?” Jack glared at her. “Well?”

“No, it won't.” Sarah plastered on a smile, clapping her hands as she spun around, fighting down the wave of concern that had risen up at the sight of the lifeless grey on Jack’s hand. She wasn’t needed here anymore, but she had left David and Les alone without telling them where she was going. If she didn’t come home soon they would worry.

“Well, that's all I was here for! Be good to Davey, or I'll have to make another visit!” Sarah exited the building with a smirk on her face, leaving behind a gaggle of confused deities. She had always been one for dramatics, she knew that, and while Jack’s emotional issues were concerning, that was a problem for a later date. Right now, she had been intimidating enough to hold the others back from damaging her brothers’ feelings for a good while. And if they did? She'd be back, just like she'd said.


End file.
